Chase Briscoe Takes New Approach to Martinsville in Cup Title Fight

RIDGEWAY, Va. -- Chase Briscoe believes the NASCAR Cup Series championship isn't out of reach in 2026 but he is going to need to do a lot at one of his team's "worst tracks."

Briscoe described Martinsville as statistically one of Joe Gibbs Racing's worst tracks, adding they've typically had an "eighth-to-12th-place car" -- compared to having top-five speed with Stewart-Haas Racing.

Coming to JGR has meant he has had a Martinsville great -- Denny Hamlin -- as his teammate. However, the current state of the Cup Series -- with SMT showing unique driver input to everyone in the field -- has negated that.

"I think in today's world of just Cup racing, it doesn't matter as much now, who's your teammate," Briscoe acknowledged. "Even when I was at SHR, I could see how Denny Hamlin drove the racetrack, right? You know, I could see his throttle, his steering... When your teammates with them, you know what's in their car. So from that standpoint, it does get a little bit easier. And then just even in the competition meetings."

Even while they're head-to-head-to-head with each other in the championship, Briscoe, Hamlin and Christopher Bell still discuss what they're looking for to make their cars faster. However, Briscoe has found that he still has to stick to his guns and his own style.

"You try to to mold everything based off them and their success and you know, naturally, you do drive a little bit different than them," Briscoe said.

That may have molded changes to Briscoe's "complete approach" to find speed to stay in championship contention. Briscoe is 79 points behind leader Kyle Larson heading into Martinsville. He is six points behind Hamlin -- in second -- and five behind Bell, in third.

Briscoe got back into championship contention with wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, to follow up a win at Martinsville Speedway.

Crashing at Talladega Superspeedway was a hit to his hopes but not the end.

"I still very much feel like the championship is in reach now. Is it way harder? Yes, but yeah, I mean, when we were able to win two races back to back, you know, earlier in the chase, you know, I basically cut that deficit off in two races and that's with the five car having two second place runs or you know top five runs. So yeah, I don't think it's it's out of the question," Briscoe said.

To go back-to-back again, Briscoe would need to get his first Cup win on a true short track.

Although Briscoe's first career Cup win was on the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway, he has never won a track shorter than that. His best career finish at Martinsville is fourth in fall 2023. He finished 14th in the spring, 37th with an engine last fall and ninth in spring of 2025.

Briscoe will start 11th but will need to do much more than that if he wants to race for the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hamlin starts first, Larson starts third and Bell starts 14th. 

"Qualifying is a massive, you know, importance, right?" Briscoe said. "This weekend, just knowing that you have to go and try to put up a 76 point day, like yeah, qualifying is extremely important and just Martinsville, we've seen it."

Briscoe said starting poorly will take "all 500 laps" to make up for a poor start. 

"Martinsville is so hard to pass. I mean, it has been. I feel like the hardest place we go to pass," Briscoe said.

Luckily for Briscoe, 11th is an attainable position to win. Five of the nine NextGen races at Martinsville have seen the winner come from 11th or worse. 

If Briscoe wins, he'll need some help to get in true championship contention at Homestead-Miami. However, as Briscoe said, the Chase has shown anything can happen.

"I do think that the the points can be flipped upside down at any moment. You know, when you look at Phoenix, right? Like people talked about, 'oh, the five car could have a bad day at Phoenix.' Nobody thought a bad day was one point or two points. They thought it was going to be 15 or 20 points. And you know, I even think about Martinsville for us last year. Myself and I think Christopher all blew engines and and finished 37th, 36th, and 35th. So the same thing could happen to the five," Briscoe said.

Briscoe will need to gain at least four points on Larson to stay in championship contention. As they will run to start the race, Briscoe will be 95 back but 500 laps could change that.